NARMS Cooperative Agreement Program to Enhance and Strengthen Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance in Retail Food Specimens Agency Funding Opportunity Number: PAR-16-099 Louisiana Project Summary The excessive use of antibiotics in food animals can lead to the presence of antibiotic resistant bacteria in retail meat products. This in turn can lead to antibiotic resistant infections in humans. The retail meat program monitors trends in antibiotic resistance in retail meat items. The staff from IDES will purchase 80 retail meat samples per month split into two sampling trips of 5 stores per trip. The following will be purchased from each store: 5 chicken parts, 2 ground turkey, 1 pork chop, 1 ground beef. Different brands of the same commodity are to be purchased at each store. If that is not possible, items with different lot codes or sell by dates will be purchased. The items will be purchased from the stores on the grocery store sampling list. The meat samples will be transported to the State Public Health Laboratory in Baton Rouge for processing and testing per protocol. Isolated Salmonella and Campylobacter will be shipped to FDA for NARMS testing. PFGE will be performed on Salmonella isolates at the State Lab and patterns will be uploaded to PulseNet. IDES staff and laboratorian will maintain the NARMS logsheets and submit them to FDA. They will also maintain the FDA quarterly results on Louisiana isolates and compare them to Louisiana results for accuracy and quality control. For the first 12 months of this grant cycle, the expected outcomes are the continuation of purchasing, processing, and testing 80 meat samples per month and the continuation of shipping isolates to FDA for NARMS testing. Expected outputs include a decrease in the turn-around time from Salmonella isolation to upload of patterns to PulseNet and an increase in antibiotic resistant data on Salmonella and Campylobacter to be used with other states' data at FDA. Over the five year project period, the expected outputs are a successful retail meat program for the State of Louisiana and quality retail meat surveillance data for FDA NARMS to use in addition to the data they receive from other states. This increase in quality data can help influence policy regarding antimicrobial use. The expected outcomes for the five year period includes: 1) the successful completion of the purchasing, processing, and testing of 80 meat samples per month. 2) Decreased turn-around time from Salmonella isolation to testing at the State PFGE lab and pattern upload to PulseNet which could lead to an increase in the outbreaks investigated and solved associated with Salmonella in retail meat products. 3) The increase in antimicrobial resistance data specific to Louisiana will be analyzed for trends.